Read the following passage.

Meenal is the only girl from her village who has reached High School. For this, she has to move away from her village and stay in the city. She has made a lot of friends and every time she is invited by them to attend parties, she is unable to say 'no' to them. This leaves her with less time to study, which adds to her stress level. She has been procrastinating her work and spends more time thinking that she will not be successful in life. This has increased her tension and resulted in a lack of confidence in her. Quite often she vents out her feelings of anger and frustration at her parents. Her teacher, who had been observing her, advised her to take charge of herself and seek professional help from a psychologist who uses cognitive behavioural techniques to reduce stress.

"She vents out her feeling of anger and frustration on her parents." Identify the type of coping strategy used by Meenal:

Emotion-focused strategy

The correct answer is Option (4) → Emotion-focused strategy

An emotion-focused coping strategy is used when a person tries to manage the emotional distress caused by a problem rather than directly tackling the problem itself. This often includes venting, avoidance, or seeking emotional support.

In Meenal’s case:

• She is venting her anger and frustration at her parents.

• This behavior addresses her emotional state (stress, frustration) rather than solving the root cause (time management, inability to say no to friends).

"Coping responses can be divided into two types of responses, problem-focused and emotion focused.

Problem-focused strategies attack the problem itself, with behaviours designed to gain information, to alter the event, and to alter belief and commitments. They increase the person’s awareness, level of knowledge, and range of behavioural and cognitive coping options. They can act to reduce the threat value of the event. For example “I made a plan of action and followed it”. Emotion-focused strategies call for psychological changes designed primarily to limit the degree of emotional disruption caused by an event, with minimal effort to alter the event itself. For example “I did some things to let it out of my system”. While both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping are necessary when facing stressful situations, research suggests that people generally tend to use the former more often than the latter."